XPrize After Earth challenge

May 1, 2013

The XPrize Foundation has teamed up with  Sony Pictures Entertainment and Overbrook Entertainment to launch a robotics competition celebrating the release of After Earth, in theaters May 31.

In Phase 1 of the challenge, teams will create a 2–3 minute video essay that answers targeted questions and describes their thinking on the importance of space exploration, and the relationship between sustainability and survival. Video entries will be judged, and ten teams will be selected to move forward to Phase 2 of the contest.

In Phase 2, the top ten teams from the previous phase will receive a LEGO MINDSTORMS kit to use for their mission and a Sony Handycam HDR-PJ230 camcorder to document their experience. They will design and build a Nova Prime landscape (playfield), upon which their LEGO MINDSTORMS robot will complete a series of mission tasks in one or more of four thematic areas: (1) Natural Resources, (2) Renewable Energy, (3) Agriculture, and (4) Shelter/Protection. Teams will showcase their Robot, Landscape, and Mission Tasks in a live performance in their community, which will be uploaded to the website for the judges.

The winning team will be highlighted in a Special Feature about the XPRIZE After Earth Challenge on the U.S. Blu-ray disc* of After Earth, and all members of that winning team will receive a signed Blu-ray and other cool prizes.

The Grand Prize winner will be announced August 9, 2013. Details at XPRIZEAfterEarth.com.

In After Earth, a crash landing leaves teenager Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his legendary father Cypher (Will Smith) stranded on Earth, 1,000 years after cataclysmic events forced humanity’s escape. With Cypher critically injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help, facing uncharted terrain, evolved animal species that now rule the planet, and an unstoppable alien creature that escaped during the crash. Father and son must learn to work together and trust one another if they want any chance of returning home.